By Andy Dowthwaite
January 2 2011

A new day, a new year and nothing lifts the spirits like a game of rugby on a cold winter’s day. The greatest aspect of sport for me is that there is always another day to rectify any mistakes or problems from the last game, last year. You can begin the new day with high expectations and confidence high, today will be better C’mon Bath.

We are going to see two teams packed full of talented players and particularly well sprinkled with exciting running backs that for some reason have not being playing well or delivering results.  Irish have not won in eight games, starting their losing streak early this season, and Bath who have won only twice since September, however since that miserable Saturday last season we have beaten Irish both at the Madstad and at home without too much trouble. Feeling good and confidence is high.

Unfortunately despite empty roads, the ample parking near the ground and the lively pre match band the positive vibes are broken early, having to pay £3.80 for a pint of the black stuff. The start of the game also contributed with Bath carrying forward many of yesterday’s problems. The first line out was easily lost to Kennedy who was a pain/success all day. Fortunately Irish kicked the ball straight back and a better kick back in to the Irish 22 led to another line out. The resultant replay of the line out was won this time by Bath but with scrappy ball to Claassy, the slight delay allowed their forwards to pressurise and a poor pass to Butch saw him receiving Stefan Armitage in his face and dropping the ball. Irish recovered and with a clinical passing move from their backs sped from the half way line to the corner for a decent try scored by Sailosi Tagicakibau. Molly converted from the touchline demonstrating what a fine goal kicker he is and Bath were 7 – 0 down in under five minutes and with a penalty shortly after we were 10 – 0 down in eight minutes and the mistakes were remarkably familiar.

What followed for much of the rest of the first half was Irish dominance of both position and possession. Position was generated by Molly with good cross field kicks to pin Bath back into their own half. Possession was gained from good line out and what was becoming a dominant scrimmaging performance (Corbisiero dominated Davey for much of the half) but also from the seemingly endless succession of knock on’s and dropped passes from Bath. All seemed guilty but particularly the backs with the worrying part being the amount of ball lost in contact. The constant turnover’s prevented Bath from putting any decent passage of play together and destroyed any chance of implementing decent team moves and meant we had to defend for much of the half. That we were able to keep the score at 10 – 0 for so long was down to a great defensive effort from the team, with Matt Carraro producing some headline tackles (please please re-sign him). The back row stood out for me working tirelessly, Moody, obviously now fed up with blond hair instead preferring a nice claret tinge, harassed Malone all game, Taylor making close in tackles around the ruck and Watson playing sweeper, though showing early signs of rust when carrying the ball back. Irish chipped in to help as well with poor decision making, notably Stowers tap and go at a penalty from a range easy for Molly which would have made it 13 - 0.

But slowly all that hard defensive work began to pay off. Irish were being steadily pushed back into their own half and as the interval approached and it was still 10 – 0, we began to hold onto the ball and the resultant pressure began to tell. Three penalties for infringements at the ruck allowed Olly to kick 2 from 3 and the score was 10 – 6, a score I was more than happy with going into half time. Unfortunately, Irish chose this moment to remind us what they can do on a good day and with precise passing involving Elvis and Delon Armitage, Bath’s defensive organisation was split, and with some straight and swift running Armitage was able to put Thorpe over in the corner. Molly converted another touchline kick and it was suddenly 17 – 6. Not so happy at this point but reflective of Irish’s first half dominance.  However, there is some steel showing itself in the Bath team, and they finished pressurising the Irish pack again which resulted in another Olly penalty 17 – 9 at half time and dominance in the loose very evident.

This wasn’t one of those games of two half’s where the game suddenly changes, rather Bath came out in the second half and played to what had been building as dominance in loose at latter end of the first half. The coaching staff/players clearly came out with a Plan B in the second half which was a result of understanding where we were most dominant and where we were weakest. As a result much of the second half was spent with Bath maintaining possession playing a very tight mauling game and giving neither the Bath nor Irish backs much sight of the ball. Great to watch after the diet of knock on’s and fumbles from previous games.  Yes we still made mistakes and dropped the ball in contact but with reducing regularity and the back row chased and bullied Irish into a series of mistakes to win the ball back. Moody began to destroy Molly’s confidence and yet barely touched him as he attacked the ball – he was so quick in chasing fairly slow ball from Hodgson that Molly’s kicking was all over the place and Bath were gifted possession and territory back.

The pressure generally in the Irish 22 saw Thorpe sin binned for persistent Irish infringements and Classy with his trade mark cut back and dart was able to take advantage of the extra space and score the try from 5 yards, which was created by a good 10 minutes of mauling from the pack (with a little support from Banners) showing good patience and retention skills. Olly’s conversion put us within one point, with the lead taken for the first time in the match after another penalty following more of the same from the pack.

20 minutes of hard work was fairly rapidly undone however, as Irish had a scrum in our 22 and from the resultant ball Topsy Ojo taking a good line was able to blast through a poor defensive line from Bath and a weak tackle from Olly (coming in on a bad line from the broken defence). Bowden who had taken over from the shell shocked Malone kicked the conversion to make it 24 -19.  Game Over?, no not even close. Irish had looked better as Hodgson and Malone were replaced and Mapasua joined Bowden to give greater threat in the backs, however, the Bath forwards were soon able to re-assert their dominance in the loose – the result was more infringements from Irish and Olly stepping up to kick a penalty 24 – 22.

The difference in the two sides as pressure was applied was also evident in the reaction of individual players. With Bath out played and under pressure in the first half key players such as Mears, Carraro, Moody and Taylor made great individual contributions and worked hard to establish dominance, Watson’s tackle on Allinson late in the game, even Butch who didn’t have a great game and was targeted by Irish (held down, bumped, blocked) responded with a great tackle on Buckland as Irish tried to ease pressure in their 22. Irish often made poor decision’s and struggled under pressure – Elvis’s between the legs pass when he had time and an overlap, Molly kicking straight out under pressure from Moody and Delon Armitage waving his arms and stamping his feet when decisions went against Irish.

By the closing stage the back row of Bath were completely dominant with Taylor and Moody’s hard work now complemented by a confident Watson having shaken off the rust making good hard yards up the centre and superbly supported by the forwards notably Davey and Nacho and Big Dunc. No last minute mess up here (Toulouse) no indecision with Olly in the pocket ready for the drop (Biarritz) instead more pressure until Irish cracked and gave away another penalty in front of the posts with a minute to go. Continuing his good striking of the ball Olly had no trouble with kick and Bath won 25 – 24. Watson was named Man of the Match but for me this was a reward for the whole back row and the forwards who dominated the loose and used this to control the game. Why did we sign Moody and Taylor? – for days like this.

 A new day and a new year indeed, bring on Leeds.